Before my recent short trip back to Australia (it was actually the day before I got on the plane to leave), I attended a D1 Street Legal Central round at Honjo Circuit. Here’s a pic of the paddock shortly after I arrived.

In the practice sessions, I was smooth and fast, and managed to follow the line that judge Youichi Imamura had laid out for us, which was completely different to the line that everyone had always used in competitions and practiced for. Even though I knew I didn’t really have a chance to get into the top 16, at least it looked like I had a chance because the surface was wet, and every second car was spinning out. Even Mikami-san from 3-UP said that my runs looked really good.

Then, the worst thing possible happened: it dried up.

From then on, everything went out the window. All my fiddling with tyre pressures and learning the course timing counted for nothing, as the conditions basically turned back into completely dry.

So, I stuffed up my three qualifying runs, packed up and drove home. At least I’ll get another crack at it in August for MSC!

I took the Skyline out yesterday to Honjo Circuit for a soukoukai run by Shino Kouba X Amazement. What you’re looking at is a dedicated Porsche touge drift car. The owner regularly takes it on mountain drift runs, and only brought it to the circuit after a group of his friends who were attending begged him to come.